1)
Q: What is your name and job title? What brought you into the songwriting business?
A: Tony Ramey. I’ve been writing songs since I was around 10 or 11. Putting words and rhymes together was always a favorite past time—poetry and story-writing sort of naturally progressed into songwriting after I picked up a guitar and started playing it.
2)
Q: Have you had any hit records? If so, what are they and what inspired you to write them?
A: I have had a few US Billboard US and interNational hits. My first gold record was written to spite my then publisher at the time, Tom Collins, who laid down rules about writing-- no songs over 3 minutes, no ballads, and no waltzes. I broke all three rules the same day as our writers meeting the day he laid them out. As a songwriter, it was hard to be confined to certain rules in writing a song, it almost limits your creativity. It became my first Gold Record. I have found that the best tunes, for me, are written out of frustration, emotional turmoil or in the throes of new relationships and times of deep reflection.
3)
Q: As a professional songwriter, do you have any tips and tricks to songwriting you would be willing to share with beginners?
A: Know that writing is just as much of a discipline as it is an art. Great songs take time to nurture and mull. Don't rush a song; it will come in its own time. They already exist in the ether. Writers are just the conducts that bring them into expressive existence.
4)
Q: What keeps you inspired as a writer? Where do you look for inspiration to write a song?
A: Inspiration today comes from a lot of places, but I find the most in family, friends, and in watching those folks I admire and those who inspire me to be a better person.
5)
Q: Out of the many songs you have written, do you have a favorite? What is it about, and why is it your favorite?
A: My favorite is probably “The Last Ride,” which wound up as a title cut of an indie feature film about Hank Williams, Sr. It’s a song that harkens old Gospel hymns, and a truth that every person who hears it can relate to.
6)
Q: Have you always been interested in songwriting? Even as a child?
A: Yes. I loved old stories and melodies. They fascinated me like ancient “spells” the old clerics used to win clan skirmishes to mesmerize and intimidate the enemy warriors, and inspire those who fought for their families.
7)
Q: What is the KEY to writing a good song?
A: Patience and Perseverance.
8)
Q: In your opinion, what genre of music do your songs fall into?
A: Singer-songwriter and the folk genre. The “countryfication” usually happens in the studio when the arrangement begins to come together.
9)
Q: What songwriters do you look up to or aspire to be like?
A: Kris Kristofferson, Jimmy Webb and Dan Seals.
10)
Q: Does a great song have to rhyme? In your opinion, what is the greatest song ever written?
A: No. It typically helps the cadence and “musicality” of the lyric, but there are only a few rhymes in Journey's “Faithfully”. They're in important places, but the melody carries the lyric in such a way that phonetic “rhyme” becomes unnecessary.
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